Food for Thought:
The other day I was asked a question that I have been asked on many occasions. Someone wanted to know whether or not I believe that there is life on other planets. My standard answer to this question is that I am an agnostic about the question. I just don’t know.
Sometimes that answer irritates the person asking me, if they happen to believe that there must be life on other planets. When that happens I am inevitably asked why God would have created so much wasted space, if Earth is the only planet with life on it.
My reply is very simple. First, I simply remind them that I did not deny that there could be life on other planets. Rather, I am withholding judgement until I have more evidence.
Secondly, I ask them a question. Why do you say that the universe has so much wasted space? How much space is needed to create life and creatures who bear God’s image and have free will and rationality? Since we don’t know the answer to that question, we can’t say that a universe the size of the one we have has any “wasted space.” Maybe its just the right size for God’s purposes.
The third question I ask is this: If God is omnipotent and infinite, so that nothing is hard for God and nothing is small or large in God’s eyes, then God could never be accused of not being efficient enough and wasting space.
Then finally I ask them about the human imagination and mind. Given the nearly insatiable appetite for knowledge and the nearly unlimited capacity for creativity and exploration that our mind’s have, how big a universe would it take to satiate human beings’ capacity for wonder and awe? I think it takes one exactly the size that God made for us.
Perhaps there is life on other planets. But whether there is or not, God is the one that the universe we have should cause us to seek. Then when you think about how truly enormous the universe is in comparison to us, the claim of the Christian faith which tells us God loves us is even more amazing.
“God so loved the world (the Greek word is actually cosmos, which means universe) that he gave his only begotten Son, that who so ever believes in Him, might not perish but have eternal life.”